Day 670: Trump pardons Saudi Arabia and a turkey
The CIA determined that the killing U.S. resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul was done at the direction of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS. The attack was planned and carried out with precision, including flying a kill team into Turkey to handle the grisly murder.
Donald Trump has done everything possible to ignore those facts. He has made excuse after excuse for the Saudis — even as their story changed multiple times as the days and weeks passed — and has refused to listen to the tape that has audio of Khashoggi’s murder on it.
Instead, in a written statement, Trump has gone into “we may never know” what happened mode, and brought back his favorite Vladimir Putin excuse by noting that MBS denied involvement in the murder. He also blatantly ignored the CIA’s findings, saying in part:
The crime against Jamal Khashoggi was a terrible one, and one that our country does not condone. Indeed, we have taken strong action against those already known to have participated in the murder. After great independent research, we now know many details of this horrible crime. We have already sanctioned 17 Saudis known to have been involved in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, and the disposal of his body.
Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that — this is an unacceptable and horrible crime. King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!
That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran. The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region. It is our paramount goal to fully eliminate the threat of terrorism throughout the world!
He also claimed that the Saudis would be spending billions of dollars on U.S. weapons which would create thousands of jobs, something that is dubious at best and an outright lie at worst.
In essence, Trump’s statement gave a blanket pardon to the Saudis and MBS — a close ally of Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner — for the premeditated assassination of a U.S. resident.
Later in the day, carrying on an annual hokey presidential tradition, Trump issued a pardons to Peas, a turkey spared from the butcher this Thanksgiving, while the backup turkey, Carrots, looked on. (Both turkeys will move to a Virginia Tech exhibit where they’ll be looked after by students and veterinarians.)
So all in a day’s work, Trump issued a pardon to a turkey and a nation that committed an extrajudicial murder of a U.S. resident in Turkey.
670 days in, 792 to go
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